Frozen Synapse Thaws Soon – New Trailer

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Kieron and Quintin‘s excitement about Mode 7’s Frozen Synapse has been somewhat infectious, which means it’s safe to say there’s rather a lot of people looking forward to the imminent release of the fast-paced simultaneous turn-based action strategy-em-up. It’s so soon! This Thursday! And it’s found itself a publisher in Matrix Games. There’s some new pictures, one of them moving, below.

You can still pre-order the game at the moment. Which will give you access to the beta, and thus the 55 mission single-player campaign. As for precisely when it is released, that’s still oddly ambiguous. But we get the impression we’re talking about any day now. It’s this Thurs. Thanks Mode 7. Have some pics and a vid.

Just pointing out, Frozen Synapse is much loved by pretty much all of RPS, and was announced before Subversion was – in fact, I think Mode7 already had a playable build of FS in beta when we first saw Subersion at the 2010 BAFTAs. So accusing them of copy pasting is a bit strong, especially seeing the mechanics are entirely different.

Sorry Crimsoneer, I didn’t realize you were an Ambassador of RPS’s collective opinion. Style wise I’d be much more impressed if it looked a little different. Its using a nearly identical font too. Obviously I don’t believe that Introversion ‘own’ the look. Also, I’ve been following them since Uplink and get all girly when I bump into the developers. So I’m going to feel uncomfortable about how similar it is and anyone with more love than me for Frozen Synapse might too.

They only look similar in the sense that they’re following the whole “abstract computer representation” theme. Be honest here, that’s something that’s been culled from previous countless games and not a fair few movies as well. If we’re going to talk legacy and influences here, I’d sooner go all the way back to Tron than Introversion, if not further.

Introversion don’t “own” the look, but frankly they weren’t particularly innovative in using it in the first place, it’s already a well established style. Indie games tend to use such abstractions because guess what, it’s much easier and far less resource intensive than creating the assets necessary for whole levels, and it makes it far easier to procedurally generate.

So yeah, saying “It looks like a copy pasta of Subversion” is silly. Far more importantly though is that it is just plain a very different style of game.

Thanks for the lesson in using iconography instead of realistic art assets subedii. That had never occurred to me.
The whole abstract computer representation can be done in a multitude of creative ways and this one so happens to be similar to another quite well known indie game. I’d of thought with the power of indie, something a little more individual could be done.
I’m ducking out of this now, I have art assets to make. I’ll admit I was jumpy but stand by my opinion this is too similar in appearance than I feel comfortable with.

Thanks for the lesson in using iconography instead of realistic art assets subedii. That had never occurred to me.

You were the one getting “jumpy” about it, by your own admission. But hey, feel free to be even more condescending now.

The whole abstract computer representation can be done in a multitude of creative ways and this one so happens to be similar to another quite well known indie game. I’d of thought with the power of indie, something a little more individual could be done.
I’m ducking out of this now, I have art assets to make. I’ll admit I was jumpy but stand by my opinion this is too similar in appearance than I feel comfortable with.

I geniunely don’t understand what you mean by “too similar in appearance to feel comfortable”. Unless you’re going to the point of saying one’s trying to rip off the other, I don’t see the issue.

Even at that point, Subversion still looks as if it has its own take on the theme and in general looks more detailed (where FS ifs a far more barebones abstraction, partly because it’s purely down to what the gameplay requires). It’d be pretty easy for me (and I’m certain, you) to tell the two apart, even without obvious telltales like the HUD / interface.

I rather enjoyed what little I played of the single-player. The story is surprisingly intriguing. Unfortunately before I could venture too much deeper I was swallowed whole by The Witcher / 2. I expect I shall return to it at some point though.

Matrix? I dunno if that’s the best news. I guess they must do pretty well by those they do publish, but their whole setup, price structure and refusal to work with the DD platforms has always been strange to me. I know it must work for them, and I wish the Frozen Synapse guys all the best. I preordered well over a year ago, but I’m just not a fan of this publisher.

It’s absolutely nothing like Worms in the slightest, and rocket launchers are totally a speciality weapon that takes waaay more skill and finesse to use than the basic weapons.

One thing I find rather interesting: There’s no health system. One hit from any weapon is instantly lethal, but every weapon has a targetting time, affected by range, shooter facing and cover. No dice-rolls, either. Two guys shooting at the same time will play out the same time again and again, with whoever had the fractional numerical advantage in their favor.

Yeah the lack of “luck” rolls is pretty much crucial to how the entire game plays out.

Every move can be simulated down to the nearest millimetre and fraction of a second, and it all counts. Timing and positioning is everything in this game. If you simulate an outcome, then assuming everything goes as you predicted, that outcome WILL take place.

It places a lot of stress on thinking like your opponent. What’s his best course of action in this scenario, and how do I counter it?

I just want to add to the generally positive previews this has been getting that the single player for this is much better than I thought it would be. I was expecting a sort of glorified skirmish mode but the SP has clearly had a lot of time and effort spent on it and features a very nice story which seems far from bolted on.

This is mainly what’s put me off buying it already. I have a perfectly good Team Fortress 2 habit to service & I fully expect I’ll be unable to stop myself playing this when I do finally cave in & get it.
SpaceChem is already taking over my life, I don’t need another spectacularly good indie game to make things even worse.

Please stop making really good games indie dev’s. There aren’t enough hours in the week to do all of them justice.

@Malibu – the great thing about this game is that the games can be played over the course of several days, whenever you have a spare few minutes. You just send your turn in, and then wait for your opponent to do the same, and you’re free to take as long as you want with your turns (i’ve been waiting on some opponents for weeks). The next time you load the game up, if you and your opponent have finished your turns, the game shows you the result and lets you plan out your next turn. It’s a slick set-up and allows somebody like me (who doesn’t have a lot of time to play games) to feel like i’ve played several fully fleshed-out matches against someone.

The key brilliant thing about it is the facility to simulate each turn, right down to what you expect your opponent to do. It’s only when you start anticipating what the other guy’s next move is and trying to counter-act it that the game really starts to come into its own.

Take your time to plan as long as you want, and just try to think what you would do in their situation. The good thing about this game is that since it’s all turn based, nobody has to wait around. They (or you) can go off and do other stuff or play other matches whilst the opponent is still thinking things through.

Once you get used to how it’s formatted, it’s fairly common to have several games at different stages, all running concurrently. Some players prefer to play one game at a time and stay in the match, submitting turns immediately. Others will happily post a response move a day or two later.

This game is great fun and pretty addictive. I joined the beta only a few weeks ago and have found the auto matcher finds players about my experience level to play against. Describing it as a thinking man’s Counter-Strike is apt. Highly recommended.

Throwing in my super-positive review. I don’t have a lot of time for gaming right now, but this game allows you to jump in whenever you have a few spare minutes and plan out a few moves in however many games you currently have going. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, too, and the community is excellent. Whenever I’ve played a new mode, my opponent has been more than willing to provide some pointers, and I make sure to return the favour whenever I’m pitted against somebody new. And yes, the single-player is surprisingly lengthy and good.

I heard about it a while ago and it sounds fun to me, I decided to buy it this morning since the game is almost release and I do not regret, I’m only playing singleplayer right now and I’m having a blast.

As has been brought up in passing, this game sidesteps the whole indie multiplayer issue of not being able to find anyone to play with by having asynchronous play-by-email style multiplayer, with running several games in parallel being highly encouraged.

Once a match has been organized by the matchmaker server, it can play out in as little as 10 minutes, or over the course of a week. There’s no pressure on being there to play against someone constantly, and it really does let you play things at entirely your own pace. You can be as slow, tactical and methodical as you like.